Suppliers of process plants in the process industries often design and construct plants to the specifications of each buyer on a built-to-order custom basis. This is common practice when the process plants are low-volume, highly-specialized, high-cost products. Such plants are utilized in process industries such as petroleum refining, chemicals, industrial gases, pharmaceuticals, primary metals, and food processing. Design and engineering costs for such plants are significant because much of the design and engineering work is done on a one-off basis and cannot be reused for future plants.
Suppliers of process plants attempt to standardize component selection and design efforts as much as possible in order to offer cost-competitive product lines to potential buyers. Greater standardization of plant components, which brings the benefits of mass production to the supplier, can be contrary to the buyer's desire for customization and maximum flexibility. Because the cost of engineering design is a major component of the capital cost of a large process plant, the supplier has a significant incentive to standardize engineering design work in order to offer a cost-competitive plant which performs to the buyer's specifications. The challenge to the process plant supplier is to balance a maximum selection of process plants in each product line with a minimum number of standard components used in process plant design, while at the same time ensuring acceptable choices and flexibility for the buyer. When this is achieved, improved competitive position and profitability will be realized by the supplier, while maximum value will be realized by the buyer.
The example embodiments of the present invention address the need for an engineering design approach to provide process plant product lines which satisfy buyers' requirements while minimizing engineering design costs by maximizing the use of repeatable engineered components in each plant design.